Star Trek: The Next Generation

"Silicon Avatar"

Air date: 10/14/1991
Teleplay by Jeri Taylor
Story by Lawrence V. Conley
Directed by Cliff Bole

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Just as a Federation colony is getting settled on a lush planet, the deadly crystalline entity — which consumes life as a food source — shows up and turns the entire world into a barren wasteland. The woman who would've been Riker's next conquest is among the colonists who are killed in the attack. The Enterprise is assigned to pursue the crystalline entity and attempt to make contact if possible — or destroy it if necessary. They take on Dr. Kila Marr (Ellen Geer), a scientist and expert on the entity whose son was killed many years ago in the entity's attack on Omicron Theta (see "Datalore").

There's a moment in "Silicon Avatar" that stands out for me: Riker has just privately made the case to Picard that the crystalline entity is a dangerous scourge that has already killed thousands, and perhaps the Enterprise's mission should be to destroy it to stop its killing spree instead of attempting to communicate with it. After the conversation, Riker leaves and Picard sits there ambiguously. Patrick Stewart's expression shows thoughtfulness without revealing what he's thinking. Does he disagree with Riker? Is he worried he may be right? It's a perfect performance that shows a man just thinking about what he has heard, and processing it carefully. Stewart makes such a brief, subtle moment so memorable.

But I also think this scene echoes my feelings about the episode in general, which is: I'm just not sure what I think about all this. Picard uses an analogy that compares the crystalline entity to a feeding whale, suggesting that it's a force of nature that has as much right to exist as anything else. Fair enough, but we're not talking about shellfish being consumed in mass quantities; we're talking about people's lives and entire M-class worlds being laid to waste. At some point, a line must be drawn. The episode acknowledges this question without quite dealing with it.

Then there's Dr. Marr, whose arc in this story is a little heavy-handed. At first she distrusts Data because his brother Lore betrayed Omicron Theta, leading to her son's death. Later, because Data holds the memories of her son, she weeps as Data reads a letter in her son's voice. Ultimately, she makes the unilateral decision to destroy the crystalline entity by turning the communication frequency into a weapon. I'm not fond of the contrived way she seems to instantly flip from rational to crazy as her revenge brings about "peace" for her son's memory. And the final scene with Data underlines the tragedy in a way that simultaneously feels too conveniently tidy and yet weirdly incomplete.

123 comments on this review

Yes jammer but who drowns the line and how and where? Can we say that we
have the right to destroy the crystalline entity but the entity itself has
not the right to survive? becouse if we kill it for reasons of
serfpreservation then it will not survive. So we will destroy other
lifeforms in order to survive? and the shellfish has not the same right to
survive? do we have somehow more right to survival than the selfish? If yes
why?becouse we consider ourselves intelligent? you see these are difficult
questions and i think that picard is right to pose the question. In the end
the actions of Dr. Marr are exactly the kind of action that justify
picard's question, they are the actions of a revengfull hunan who doesn't
care at all about the entity's right to exist.And for all that the episode
i think deserves 3 stars.

Silicon Avatar is a 3.5 star episode. Kila Marr's struggle with dealing
with her guilt over leaving her son behind with friends to pursue her
career leading to his death by the crystaline entity was well done and
compelling, the scene where Data replays his logs in his voice was moving,
and the final scene where we see an already broken mother get one more
emotional punch to her gut when Data tells her her son would not approve
was devastating. Plus the attack in the teaser and early first act added a
nice bit of exciting action.

I don't quite understand your issue with the episode honestly. Picard's
point was that does a human as a lifeform deserve to exist anymore than
crystalline entity--they are both living creatures.

The problem I had with Picard's "moral dilemma" was the idea that the
concept of self-defense is somehow morally suspect. If shellfish could
fight back against whales, wouldn't they? SHOULDN'T they? Why should any
lifeform with the ability to fight back against its own imminent
destruction decline to do so, or feel as though it should? Honestly, by
season five, I was pretty well and tired of Picard's neverending "moral
dilemmas" over issues that are self-evident on their face (such as the
right to self defense, or the idea that being alive but "contaminated" is
better than being dead and "pure" [See The Masterpiece Society]). TNG had
mostly left such preaching behind by this point, making the occasional
lapses that much more frustrating.

We already knew that the cystalline entity's intent was evil from previous
episodes; that it would kill before; that it had killed thousands.
Picard's naive attempts to communicate with it almost begged the question:
is EVERY menacing destructive life form on this show always
"misunderstood"? Are there EVER any circumstances that would justify the
killing of a life for to prevent the slaughter of millions of people?

Few here would argue, I am sure, that a species technologically and
physiologically superior to us is under a moral "obligation" to try to
listen to our communication before annihiliating us if we are perceived as
a threat.

Here, we were faced with a deadly killing machine. Dr. Marr killed it.
And the show, through Data, in the final scene, wags its finger at her,
saying "Shame on you".

Shame on the show. The ending made me sick. Dr. Marr did the right thing,
and people who can't even understand (if not embrace) that point of view
can be as narrow minded as the "evil" humans they so easily trash.

What the hell kind of compromise would be possible? "Oh, don't randomly
kill thousands of us at a time - we'll offer you some sacrifices to keep
you alive from time to time. Hey, look at all that Romulan space..."

Seriously, the thing's existence depends on an act that humans cannot
tolerate. No workable compromise is possible.

They didn't "shoot first and ask questions later." They were, to continue
the metaphor, essentially letting the crystalline entity go on an unabated
shooting rampage while wringing their hands about whether they had the
"right" to stop it from massacring more people. It absolutely blows my
mind that people don't think sentient beings have the right to
self-defense. Yeah, this episode ranks as one of the worse examples of
naive Star Trek why-can't-we-all-just-get-along "morality".

Also, why do so many parents feel compelled to abandon their children on
TNG? I love how Dr. Marr just left her son alone "with some friends" on
the colony so she could run around and be a scientist. She couldn't take
him with her? I had a hard time feeling sorry for her loss since her kid
was obviously pretty low on her totem pole of priorities to begin with...

Picard admits to Marr that there is the possibility that they may have to
destroy the entity. But he didn't want to resort to that until he had
exhausted all other options, which Marr kept him from doing when she
destroyed the entity.

Marr's son was a teenager, so maybe he was at the age when he wanted to be
on his own (for a while, anyway).

Every kid wants things that they shouldn't have. I wanted a pet lion and
an airplane when I was a kid. Fortunately, my parents saw the wisdom in
not getting me whatever I wanted. Abandoning your kid for no good reason
is not good parenting, and it's something that shows up time and again on
TNG. It drives me insane.

I would have found Marr's "revenge" a little more credible if she hadn't up
and left her kid because she decided he was a hindrance to her career.

I see what you're saying but giving a kid a wild animal for a pet and
allowing a teenager to spend time away from home with friends are two
different things.
Although this was never specified, the friends he was with may have been
school/childhood acquaintances whom his mom trusted.

It seems some people just don't like TNG's morality and Picard's attempt to
communicate (just an attempt to communicate, Picard didn;t abandon the
right to self preservation, that's a misunderstanding at best or a
perversion of the truth at worst ) becouse it is "naive" ( how many times i
heard this accusation?) while shooting someone without even trying to
communicate it's o.k. for them . So let us be naive and if you don't like
TNG's "naive" morality don't watch it.

You don't shoot someone and you don't kill someone before you even try to
find another solution. It's as simple as that.Becouse if you do it means
that you are not even intersted to avoid the shooting. And that says a lot
but i will avoid the apropriate term for such a behaviour becouse i'm not
interested in "polemics".

So far, they had tried allowing it to live. That path resulted in many
deaths.

You trivialize the lives that were lost, and those that are still in danger
of being lost. I realize it's hard to empathize with other sentient beings
(humans) when they're on TV. It's easy to see them as expendable, since
they're fictional. But within the context of the story, their safety is
important.

How many lives do you think would be a reasonable price to pay in order to
learn more about the CE?

How exactly had they 'tried allowing it to live'?
Our heroes hadn't seen the CE since "Datalore" so it's not like Picard
could've just decided one day to seek it out and talk to it.
And for the last time, PICARD ACKNOWLEDGED THAT IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO
DESTORY THE CE!!!
His meeting with it would have determined whether its destruction was
imperative until Marr decided to skip a few steps.

The problem I had with this episode was the whole idea that it was so hard
to communicate with the Crystalline Entity, when in Datalore, Lore just
flipped on the communicator and spoke to the thing verbally. Even as
recently as Brothers, Data tells Soong that Lore conspired with the entity
- he clearly knew that communication, even co-operation, was possible. So
how come all of a sudden they're reduced to tickling the thing to get a
reaction?

This moral issue had been done and would be done far better in the Trek
canon. This one feels like an excuse for unnecessary continuity with season
1--the CE was a really hokey idea to begin with, I didn't need to see it
again just to learn absolutely nothing new about it.

Marr's interaction with Data serves the purpose of letting us see the
emotional emptiness of Data himself and how emotional distance leads to
altruistic behaviour, a staple of Federation values. For that, I
appreciated the story, but Marr herself is overplayed and rather
uninteresting.

ALong the line sof Elliott's comments about the hokeyness of the CE...he's
right. As presented here, the Crystalline Entity is a a singular being,
which begs the question of its origins. Does it have a mother, does it have
children? Was this THE same entity that we've seen before? Neither the
characters nor the episode itself bothers to ask.

What I find strange here is how was everyone so 100% sure that the modified
photon torpedos would destroy it (or a resonance for that matter)? I would
have seen the communication attempt necessary first hand since firing the
creature would almost certainly deny any attempts to find other possible
resolutions. By this logic the "let's shoot first" tactic could have been
the undoing of all nearby life. I also don't see how any communication
attempts could "rob" them of their chance to *try* to kill it. If it was
then absolutely sure that they could destroy it, I don't see how the "last
words of the accused" would have any danger in them.

Where do these accusations of "letting it live" come from? By trying to
speak to it, they were slowing it down if anything.

Also, the doctor was obviously a typical annoying woman. As in "The
Drumhead." Probably a ESFJ person, who so easily becomes the victim of
hysterization and emotions. Always trying to justify their actions with
"reason." And oh yes, that kinda of people do exist.

DanR got it right. In "Datalore" they had already established
communication with the CE and in so doing revealed to the CE that humans
were intelligent, sentient beings. In spite of that the CE decided that
humans were merely food and had no right to exist other than to provide it
sustenance. James T. Kirk would have blown that monster away as soon as it
got within sensor range [see Obsession]. And, no, Renny would NOT have
disapproved of mom's actions.

Dr. Marr was not right. To commit murder is against all laws according to
different countries & worlds. Picard wanted to try to communicate with
the creature & try to figure out if a comprimise can be reached. Since
that was not so, I suspect, Dr. Marr was going to be severely reprimanded.

@Mike: "Dr. Marr was not right. To commit murder is against all laws
according to different countries & worlds."

What worlds exactly are you referring to? Murder as you define it, could
be part of a natural mating cycle on some other planet. What a ridiculous
statement. Typical human arrogance. As if our morality, our laws and our
anything are what the universe must revolve on. Before the cosmos,
humanity is as insignificant as whatever you can conjure up to satisfy the
definition of "really insignificant." Morality is not instinctive in
humanity - it is taught through childhood. All of our senses of morality
are different from each other. One could even say alien to each other.
So, how alien would our sense of morality be to an actual alien?

Anyway, this whole episode is ridiculous. As others have pointed out, Lore
established communications with the Entity, the Entity knowingly ravaged a
human colony - it knew what we were (as in, sentient beings possessed of
advanced technologies) and still considered us a food source. Sorry. Arm
photon cannons, you're gone.

So it has the right to live and we should let it… Yeah right! If the
entity is intelligent, self aware, and sentient or whatever, it is not
going to stop simply because we tell it to. Didn’t Star Fleet tried that
with the Borg and other villains? Had it been left to continue it would
had destroy the two planets it was heading for and eventually EARTH. I
would call that a mass murderer. If it was intelligent that would make it
evil, period. Now remember that the crew realized they could actually
“communicate” with it. How can an intelligent being not realize the
colonist were also intelligent.

Now let use Picard’s analogy and simply say it was acting on pure
instinct. So how many of you out there believe that if you get an
infection you should just let it play its course and allow whatever is
killing you to continue since the germs are only feeding themselves, they
are not intelligent and are, just like the whales, just doing what comes
naturally. They too have the right to be here, especially since many of
them are quite beneficial. Or maybe you would allow cockroaches,
mosquitoes, rats, mice, bed bugs, lice or another pest invade and stay in
your home or body living right besides you or off you and your children.
Perhaps if you house is invaded by Termites you would probably just let
them eat it to the ground and just go purchase another house somewhere
else. After all they are beneficial and acting on instinct. Without them
life on this planet would be impossible. Imagine no cockroaches, Flies,
bacteria, or even Termites. We would be living in a pile of Garbage. When
they invade they too are acting on instinct, nothing personal, just
eating.

Oh but wait, these are tiny little creatures and the Crystalline entity was
a huge beautiful creature, worthy of scientific studies. Really? In space?
In our galaxy these entities would be just as microscopic in comparison as
bacteria would be in our bodies. In such comparison men would be the cure,
the anti bodies needed to control them from totally destroying the galaxy,
much as our own immune system defends our bodies. Uhh, or maybe we should
destroy our immune system in order to keep it from destroying the germs
that attack us. Does anyone see how ridiculous this whole episode was?

We have animals on earth that are quite capable of killing humans but when
they do they kill a human or other animal they feed on it and move on, they
don't kill everything in their path, yet we still kill them to protect
ourselves or our live stock. I’m sure that if one you were in the jaws
of one of these animals you would give anything to have someone kill the
animal before it kills you. What would you do if the animal was capable of
killing the entire population of your town in a couple of hours and then
started moving on to another town? I guess it has the right to live and
eat so just let it go on its merry way.

This episode was an insult to ANY intelligent viewer that saw it and agreed
with Picard. He’s an idiot. He would draw a line on the Borg, “Here!
No Further!” but would allow a planet killer to go on its merry way
totally destroying all life and whole civilizations. With the Borg at least
the victims continued to live. What about in "Identity Crisis"? Why did he
destroy the life form that had taken over LaForge? Lilly was right, he is a
coward and in this instance he was afraid of the Crystalline Entity, even a
mouse when cornered would come out fighting, and I truly believed this is
the kind of behavior he exhibited time after time, cowardice, then defense
because he was cornered.

What would any of the other Captains do? This episode destroyed the Picard
character.

There are problems with this episode (and I'll get to those). But you're
kind of misstating what Picard tried to do.

As you noted, citing "Identity Crisis," Picard will try to eliminate
something that is a threat that CAN'T BE REASONED WITH. TNG is clearly the
most PC of the Star Trek series, so it might be the case that Picard and
co. bend over backwards to do this too often. But this episode (as it is
written) is only a slight stretch.

Picard was trying to establish communication with the entity to see if
there was a way they could reach a mutual understanding. He also does this
in "Time's Arrow" when he asks the beings traveling back in time to San
Francisco if there is anything that could replace the neural energy they're
stealing from humans. This happens after the aliens have killed a bunch of
humans in the 19th century.

The outrage at the entity's destruction stems from the fact that Picard
might have moments before found a way to communicate -- so they could
explain to the entity what it was doing and try to get it to stop. The
comparison with the whale paints the entity as some sort of incoherent
force that just doesn't understand what it's doing.

And, if that were applicable, Picard's position is exactly right and
consistent with Star Trek.

The problem with this episode is that it forgets much of the entity's first
appearance in "Datalore". The entity, in that episode, was pretty clearly
sentient and could communicate with Lore (Lore talks to it, at one point).
It's hard to believe that it didn't know what it was doing -- which means
negotiations would have been harder, if not impossible.

But even then, Picard's approach to try to find a solution through
communication is consistent. Archer made peace with the Xindi, even after
they killed 7 million humans because of bad information. Picard sent Hugh
back to the Borg collective (because he'd become sentient) without the
virus (or whatever it was) Data and Geordi had designed to destroy the
Borg. Etc. Etc.

This episode suffers from poor continuity -- but viewed on its own, it's is
pretty consistent with TNG and Star Trek.

Why does everyone who criticizes this episode forget that Picard
acknowledges that they *may* need to destroy the CE? In fact, there's a
scene in this episode where he talks to Worf about preparing photon
torpedoes when they run into it. Hello?

I think people conveniently forget this to fit their "Picard is a wuss"
narrative.

Episodes like this one raise far bigger ethical and philosophical questions
than DS9 ever dreamed of. And yet every time TNG ventures into this zone,
and begins philosophizing over true morality and ethics, a higher order of
thinking, you reject it Jammer. I'm sorry but I'm calling BS. It seems like
you don't want depth, but instead want angst and conflict and basassery.

TNG stood for something greater, and so does Picard here. That's why this
show is so great, and has been remembered as such.

You call BS, then I will as well -- on your going from review to review to
call DS9 a soap opera while alleging that I equate serialized with "deep"
just 'cause.

Whatever.

Let's first set aside the fact that some of these review were written
nearly 20 years after other ones, and expecting me to be 100 percent
consistent is just silly.

You don't like DS9? Fine. I don't care; that's your prerogative. I like
both shows for what they were. Anyone who can't see that isn't paying
attention. If you're going to nitpick everything I say in X situation and
cry foul that I didn't also say it in Y situation, then we're going to be
here awhile.

I had no problem with the entity getting blown to bits. Let's say for
instance that it was 'feeding'. That would make it somewhat of a poor man's
Galactus, of Marvel comics. Clearly in order for it to feed, civilizations
must die.
Let's say Picard managed to converse with it. The entities only defense
would be essentially, "Hey, that sucks for them but I have to live." It's
next act would have been to continue to the next 'live' planet and suck the
life out of it.
What would Picard do as the entity wiped out yet another civilization? Just
sit there and watch.
What if it came after earth? Does earth say 'No problem entity. We
understand you have to wipe us out to survive.' Or does earth defend
itself?
I'm with the doctor here. Blow the thing up. It's only one destructive life
form weighed against billions of other life forms. Not just the human/oids
get wiped out, every species on the planet becomes extinct.

I'm on board with destroying the CE if it comes down to it or an entire
civilization. However, Picard was not wrong that there might be other
sources for the CE -- and by that he surely meant non-living sources.
Replicators can produce meat. And Picard said it may be necessary to
destroy it.

@ William B Nice suggestion with the replicators, but that would be some
serious replicating. If this was a first encounter then I'd say talk to it.
I just think the writers did far too good a job establishing the entity as
a destroyer of planet life for there to be any need for a discussion of
compromise. They did not even tone it down for this episode.
As soon as Data and Riker established that it was the crystalline entity
they knew that it meant certain death. The thing devoured all signs of life
on the planet in a short period of time. When they started tracking it
there were two possible courses. One led to uninhabited planets, the other
led to an inhabited planet. Picard knew the thing was headed to the
inhabited planet.
The planet eater was ready for dinner. I highly doubt that a replicator
could serve up a planet size meal.

Ralph's comment raises an issue inherent in almost any criticism of an
episode (assuming the episode isn't an absolute catastrophe) - when does
criticism become 'mere' disagreement over taste or world view? As Ralph
says, Picard's position is without a doubt consistent with the Star Trek
humanist world view represented by Star Fleet's ethos. And the character
never waivers from this particular idealism. So, if one has a problem with
Picard's stance in this episode, it is essentially a disagreement with the
ST world view. If I had this sort of problem with Picard and thus, I think,
the show, it would be a good idea for me to consider what I want and expect
from the show...you know, I'd try to exercise the sort of awareness and
consideration that's a huge part of what underwrites Picard's character.

Re the heated comments, the point is that, when disagreements arise over
world views, we're no longer really talking about any given episode.

Note: please don't take my comment to be saying there's no way to criticize
any episode - certainly not! Episodes can have crap stories, continuity
problems, etc., and of course such problems are fully deserving of
attack...but such problems are, thank fully, usually not lightning rods for
heated arguments...

I think Dr. Marr erred at the end of this episode. The fact that the
crystalline entity had stopped its approach to its next target and was
attempting to communicate back doesn't mean that it should have been
destroyed right then and there, even considering all the lives destroyed
before. Its analogous to two parties who agree to sit down to settle a
dispute and one party summarily destroys the other.

That's not to say that the crystalline entity would have been willing to
stop, or that it would have been possible to provide for the energy it
needed in some less destructive manner. It still could have been necessary
to destroy the entity, but to do so during a moment in which there's the
potential to find out more about it and a potential to stop any further
destruction is as conniving an act as I'd expect from a Romulan.

That final blow to Dr. Marr that Data delivers is great. She made studying
the being her life's work (perhaps the work being a replacement for the son
she left to his fate) and in the end her revenge will give her no
satisfaction.

In fact, I'd give this episode three and a half stars myself. This is one
of those episodes in which we're reminded that humanity, despite all of its
great achievements, still can be its own worst enemy sometimes, especially
when dealing with such an unclean motive as revenge. It's also an episode
that has stood out over the years since the first time I saw it, and
because of that impact that it made upon my memory I think it deserves that
extra star.

There's a lot of interesting comments here. I think part of what the
problem is, is that Picard was never clear what exactly he hoped to gain by
dialog. E.g., just what kind of compromise could be made with a creature
that eats ALL life of a planet? I cannot see replicators being sufficient.
About the most peaceful thing Picard could do, is just tell the Entity to
leave Federation Space, but that just passes this major problem to other
civilizations.

Also, even if somehow Picard and the Entity got to an agreement, what if it
broke its word? Eating all the life of Betazed would be a SEVERE
consequence! The survivors/relatives of such an incident would NOT have
been satisfied with an agreement, they would say it should have been
destroyed back when Dr. Marr was on board, it's too great of a danger to
the Federation and its people.

And that I think, is the crux of the issue. The CE needs to be destroyed,
regardless if it's intelligent, because it's just too a great a danger to
Federation Worlds (TWO have already been destroyed at this point, plus the
crew of a ship). Capturing it and trying to feed it won't work (the CE
consumptions needs are too great), telling not to eat is a non-starter, so
thus ending its threat is the only viable option - NOT what Picard said "It
MAY be necessary." No, it's not MAY, it is IS.

This I think is what getting people emotional and disagreeing with Picard,
because it's not MAY be necessary to destroy, it IS.

Just finished watching 'Matter of Time' in which Picard totally disregards
the Prime Directive, and admits to having done it before. In that instance
hie reason for 'going against the world view' ,as someone put it, was that
he wanted to save a planet of 20 million lives. That's why it is possible
to argue against his reasoning in this episode without arguing against the
'world view'. There are precedents and post instances where Picard
disregards the 'world view' for a greater good.
I would venture to say that his argument in this instance is out of
character because he puts his curiosity ahead of the risks involved.

I think the thing that hurts this episode, thinking about it, is that the
stakes are a bit unclear. In that Picard vs. Riker discussion in the ready
room, Riker suggests that they may miss their only shot to take out the CE
if they stop to talk to them. Is that the case? We know what the risks
are if the CE continues to kill civilizations, but I don't think we, or the
characters for that matter, have a very strong idea of how probable it is
that the Enterprise can indeed destroy it; and, further, how likely it is
that the CE can outrun the ship if it chooses to do so. What exactly is it
that Riker is concerned about here? Is he worried that the CE will run
away if the Enterprise communicates with it, and the Enterprise won't be
able to catch up with it? If so, why does he think the Enterprise will be
able to catch up with it in the first place? Watching the episode, I
largely feel as if nothing is lost by trying to communicate with the CE --
I don't see how that attempt at communication makes it harder to destroy
it, given the stated premise that the Enterprise' shields will protect it,
and given that I believe the Enterprise can outrun it, though maybe I'm
wrong about that. Still, Riker has conviction that not opening fire will
be missing a shot, and I am not sure if that is supposed to be a sensible
position or not -- and the episode, I feel, just doesn't give enough
information to evaluate that claim. I think that uncertainty about the
stakes is part of why I think the episode plays well for me while watching
but feels unsatisfying once it's over. All that said, I do think that
Picard is more right than wrong here -- he agrees that they should destroy
the CE if necessary, and merely wants to find other ways to communicate it,
and refuses to dismiss the entity as evil when it is feeding to sustain
itself. I agree with all those.

Picard's comparing the CE to a whale also positions the episode as a bit of
a Moby Dick fable. More interesting than Marr's revenge is the way in
which her relationship to Data shifts in a way that always maintains Data
as the titular avatar: first she looks at Data and sees only Lore, then she
looks at Data and sees only her son. Tim Lynch, when he reviewed the
episode back in the day, pointed out that Data's emotionlessness plays out
*very* well in this story -- that only Data could react as little as he
does to her outright rudeness early in the story, and only Data could lay
on the line how her son would have disapproved of her actions with such
brutal honesty at the episode's end; anyone else would have been too angry
or too sympathetic. That Marr eventually is so crazy that she starts
talking to Data literally as if he were her son is rather much for me. But
the episode is maybe interesting in suggesting the way Data functions as a
blank slate for others to project their beliefs onto. Data's lack of
emotions and his willingness to listen attentively and selflessly to others
make him the perfect repository for others' hopes, dreams, fears and flaws.
Still, be careful what you wish for: Data turns out to be better at being
an avatar for Marr's son than she really wanted.

This episode is pretty far out of continuity with the details of Datalore,
but I think it mostly is in tune with its spirit. It doesn't quite come
together but has many interesting elements; I'd say a high 2.5 stars.

So suddenly the CE is "back in town"...where has it been since it last
showed itself? We have a vessel devoured be the CE in this episode...was
this the first incident of its kind since the ENt-D last encountered one of
these, or have ships been devoured all during the interim? If its the
latter, why only here, after the colony where Riker was, is destroyed. If
its the former, where was the CE in the interim...does it only feed every 5
years.

So many unanswered questions here, making both the concept and the episode
a hot mess. The CE is about the last entity that needed a return engagement
on the screen.

I've read all of the above responses after having watched the episode again
just an hour ago.

My thoughts are: the CE needed to be destroyed.

Why? Because it wasn't simply "acting on instinct" it was going on
premeditated action.

Many of you are correct in pointing out that the CE had already been
communicated with previously by Lore with great ease I might add. This
episode was written poorly in that it completely ignores that fact. It
could also be that the ignorance by the writers was intentional, since
ackowledging Lores communcation with it and its later corresponding actions
would have made any moral dilemmas for picard practically disappear, and
ergo there would be no episode. Either it was poor writing, or lazy writing
but regardless I hated the way it ended. Marr should have at least been
presented in a sympathetic light and not simply as a trigger happy space
vigilante.

My point here is: dr marr was wrong NOT for what she did but for WHY she
did it. In dealing with a space faring population killer one does not
simply hail the nearest space police for justice. Its the 24th century
equivalent of "frontier justice:" you go after a criminal and dispense
justice swiftly and without hesitation or doubt. Its not always right, its
not always pretty, but it is always necessary when there is NO form or
justice available in the form of a law enforcement organization. Picard and
his crew should have been the lawmen in that particular situation, and
having assessed the situation he (not they) should have dispensed the
appropriate justice by destroying it. Kirk would have done no less.

When I say him I mean just that. In that type of situation a leader has to
take the full reasponsibility for his actions whether right or wrong.
Destroying the entity should have ultimately been picards decision alone so
as to prevent anyone else from suffering any possible repercussions from
starfleet.

Those of you who also think she was wrong and picard was right need to go
watch the episode in which he and riker pretty much went rambo on those
parasites that had infected starfleet. Id like to ask you...didn't they
have a right to live? Didn't the officer infected by the mother have the
right to live? Instead they were both hit with a max setting by riker and
picards phaser (one particularly grisly shot shows the officers head
exploding) so tell me, why didn't picard take the diplomatic approach then?
After all, the creature wasn't really a threat to him or riker at that
point, it was just menacing. Why didn't they choose to stun it instead?

Ill tell you why: because unlike with the crystalline entity picard in the
instance above found HIMSELF in a situation where HiS life was threatened.
No matter high or altruistic people like to pretend they are, in 99 percent
of these examples a person will not simply stop and question about the
ethics of killing another life if they perceive their life to be in
jeopardy. Let's assume that the events regarding the communication between
lore and the CE never existed...picard would STILL BE WRONG for wanting to
communicate with a creature that had already cut a swath of destruction
wherever it went.

So what if its acting on instinct?! Does that justify the deaths? If so
then stop taking antibiotics and medicine to treat viral infections because
you're killing life that is essentially acting on instinct as well.

Sometimes in order to preserve lives you must by necessity take a life.
Never in revenge, but always with justice in mind. The bombing of nagasaki
and hiroshima while clearly being murder nevertheless convinced the
japanese to stop with their kamikaze actions, which inexorably saved
millions more people. As a former solider and a current Christian I can
tell you all that the two do not reconcile easily in some occasions.
Sometimes the right thing to do is not the moral one, but simply the
necessary one. Convenient historians can judge historical figures from the
comfort of their chairs but for those on the field life is far less
accommodating.

The reality is there is no right way to go about doing thing but with
specific regard to the CE picard trivialized the deaths of the colonists by
attempting a diplomatic solution through communication. The time that it
took to communicate with it could have resulted in their destruction or its
success (as seen in the episode) could have been successful but ultimately,
fatal.

Let's now say that the events of the previous CE story were not ignored,
that only Lores communication with it was overlooked. Let's say we still
didn't know if it was sentient or not and communication was still
plausible.
What if the CE simply was trying to communicate back simply because it felt
Lore was on board? Maybe that's why it spared the colonists that had taken
refuge wiith data...it mistook data with lore. Now what if it agrees to
picards olive branch, that it would no longer attack planets? Picard in his
infite smugness would have dropped the shields and the CE would have
destroyed them all.

to use another example: when kirk and his crew encountered a space germ
they weren't sure if it was sentient or not but kirk wasn't about to waste
time with communication like spock wanted. He was determined to destroy it.
Now contrast that with that voyager episode where voyager ends up inside
another similar giant organism that feasts on space matter. See the
difference? Kirk is acting with frontier justice and janeway (and the
doctor) are acting as diplomats, as though this giant destructive organism
somehow needs to survive in order for there to be harmony in the universe.
That's utter politically correct Bs.

For example: The dinosaurs were wiped out and yet the earth went on its
business. In fact i'm glad they were wiped out because I doubt very much we
could have coexisted with them. Given a choice I would have preferred them
to be annihilated and not us.

I generally like star trek except when it gets sanctimonious, such as it
did with this episode. We are supposed to view kila marr as bad because of
her motivations but we are supposed to view picard as noble because of his
actions...nevermind the fact that his actions wouldn't have led to justice,
but a detente. Those of you who disagree, tell me...if the US had pursued
detente with Nazi germany instead of war, would that have been justice to
all those they murdered?

The difference between killing and murder is that killing is not always
done with an evil or selfish purpose in mind but murder almoat always is.

Picard should not have wasted time trying to communicate with a creature
that, sentient or not, was responsible for the deaths of countless lives.
You don't stop and ask a shark why its killing people, you get the hell of
its way to survive or you kill it so that others may survive. Ralph nailed
it, its a shame some of you touchy feely convenient humanists don't.

I hate to reopen this subject, but I can't help but say: while I don't
think that the episode was very effective at elucidating the issues, I
really don't think it's clear that Picard was wrong. We don't know exactly
how risky it was to attempt communication with the CE before destroying it.
I mean that -- what is the difference between destroying the CE, or trying
to communicate with it and then, if a peaceful resolution cannot be
reached, destroying it? The episode's great failure, for me, is that I
don't think these stakes are ever clarified. I would guess that the weapon
which affects the CE would work equally well before and after attempts at
communication, so that, ultimately, there *is* no difference, and thus no
loss by communicating with it. Riker, otoh, seems to think there might be
a missed opportunity -- maybe the CE can "run," or fight back. I really
don't know.

So let me lay out my position on this. The CE should be destroyed if it
will certainly destroy more (sentient) lives. If the CE can be
communicated with and it is possible to find some non-living source of
energy/food for it -- or, non-sentient at least (lots and lots of plants?),
then that should be done. That the CE has killed untold people already has
little bearing in my mind on whether it should be destroyed. The CE, it
seems to me, genuinely believes that its only option is to feed on any
planet (or starship) with life that it finds, and it just wants to live;
however, it may well be possible that the resourcefulness of the Enterprise
crew would be able to find a substitute for the CE which would allow the CE
to continue living without endangering others. Is it likely? I don't
know. Maybe there isn't such a source, in which case it becomes necessary
for the Enterprise to destroy it -- but I don't think it's possible to
conclude that the CE has no other options, or that no possible solutions
could be found by the Enterprise crew if communication were reached. And
hey, Picard himself wanted to destroy the CE if need be.

In addition to my moral feelings about the matter, it's also a pragmatic
decision. There may be lots of other Crystalline Entities out there of the
same species. Understanding how they work and whether it's possible to
find a solution that does *not* require either the CE or the sentient (or
animal, even) life to die could mean the difference between war and peace
with an unknown species.

If attempting communication with the CE has a real cost -- it is more
likely that the CE will not be destroyed if they attempt communication --
then it becomes more difficult. Ultimately there is a threshold of danger
above which immediate killing is preferable to me and below which an
attempt at communication is preferable. I think the level of danger posed
by communication has to be pretty low for me to prefer destroying it as the
primary option. But I can't tell what the danger level is at all, and am
not sure on what basis from the episode to make that call. On the whole, I
don't see how attempting to communicate with the CE will make it harder to
kill, and so I'm with Picard more than I'm not.

Setting aside the part of "Datalore" where the crystaline entity seemed
like Lore's partner in evil -- which this episode does -- the Enterprise
crew believes they've found a way to communicate with the entity. Picard
clearly hopes he can reason with the entity and get it to stop killing --
to convince it of what it's actually doing.

(Again, this forgets the details of "Datalore", but stay with me.)

Then, the doctor kills the entity JUST when Picard is hoping to find a
peaceful solution. Even if communicating would have ultimately failed,
Picard would have wanted to try, rather than just kill the thing.

I could have sworn there was dialog between Dr. Marr and Data about this -
she asked does Data possess the colonists memories - Data said no, but he
said he did possess all of their log, diary, and journal entries, or
something to that effect.

"Fair enough, but we're not talking about shellfish being consumed in mass
quantities; we're talking about people's lives and entire M-class worlds
being laid to waste. At some point, a line must be drawn. The episode
acknowledges this question without quite dealing with it."

This is the same argumentation that dr. Marr used in this episode. I
understand why she want CE to be destroyed - typical captain Ahab's
thinking - but I don't get why some viewers agree with her? After all
Picard is ready to kill the creature, if this will be necessary but he want
to try to communicate first and try to find find alternative solution.
Whats wrong with that? Is this is not what Trek is all about - seeking new
life forms and finding common language with them?

I havent seen either of the ce eps since they first came out, so my memory
of the details are few. Many blanks I am filling in from reading these
posts so forgive if my 2 pennies are tarnished:

Iirc picards orders were to first try to establish communication if poss?
If so that seems to remove half the arguments ive seen in these posts. He
wasnt being sanctimonious or anything else, he was doing as ordered.

dr marr was wrong. Picture a civilian advisor aboard a US navy ship while
tracking a known enemy... This advisor is in the fire control center,
forces their way to an armed torpedo console and pushes the fire button
after the captain had ordered standby. Hit and sunk. You would be in jail
for a very long time and uncle sam would not give many points because your
son died in said war. She used starfleet for her own end.

Back to the lore ep; did the ce conspire with lore, or did lore simply show
it where the food was for his own means? I dont remember but The answer
matters a lot. It gauges the malice of this entity.

Before the shoot first advocates jump me, hear me out. Im not a pacifist at
all and I might add that I saw no post here (I read them all) where anyone
advocated humanoids be slaughtered for this one creatures right to exist.
Ive only seen a kill first vs communicate first.

Much ink has been poured and pored over what to feed this thing instead of
humanoids and thats a very fair question which ill get to in a minute.

Anyone who likes trek enough to post here has to have at least a gram of
respect for the term "to seek out new life"... as picard once said;
"well... there it is!" Yeah this thing wiped out a couple planets and a
ship, but I defer back to an earlier paragraph about the intent of this
thing. It may have just been doing what it does not knowing the harm it
causes. Yes I agree completely that its killing has to stop at all costs
but the whole point of the matter is if we have a chance (no matter how
small) to communicate to this thing and let it know we are not ants or
nanites should we not try?

Another point on this; I cant help thinking about TOS 3 eps. M113, the
gorn, the horta. Just like the ce they all killed us terrans and all 3 had
different outcomes. But for me, the only two I felt remorse was M113 and
ce. Maybe because they both died, maybe because they might have been the
last of their kind and we extinguished them probably for good reason from
our POV. But a part of me felt a sad when their end came. I just imagine
earth decimated and I am the last one left and I am alone. Travelers come
along and finish me (us all) off for their own good reasons. If I was in
their tentacles I would at least wish the travelers/explorers/invaders show
me the decency to try to talk to me and let me tell them who I am and what
we were before they need to put me down. If that sounds cheesy to anyone,
in all 4 episodes starfleet were the outsiders coming into their area or
planet. On all 4 occasions we shot first (except the ce) but it still may
have been her area. Not sure. But I think im sure it wasnt ours.
I truly do believe that this was GRs vision when he made this show, we were
the frontiersmen bringing and maybe forcing our morality into places and
people. What is right or wrong? Maybe tune in each week and decide for
yourself.

This is why twilight zone 1960s and TOS are my all times favorites... They
both challenged my prejudice and bigotries and helped me open my mind. Much
more than anyone ever did trying to yell, intimidate, or force their dogma
down my throat. (Hint to the loud ones) The softest touch can be felt the
most.

Oh yeah I promised I would get back to feeding the ce IF We adopted this
pet... Assuming it needed only humanoids to feed upon and not planets and
vegetation; OK lets do it like mr spock...

This entity needs us to feed off of. What are we? The answer is,..ugly bags
of mostly water!

We all know that the ce can get water anywhere just like the huge cigar
from STIV-TVH. So thats out.

So what does this thing need? Either a handful of carbon left over from one
of those styrofoam blocks some a-hole crushed of one of my buddies in TOs
s2, or some very small enzyme in us. The point is if we could talk to the
ce maybe a burnt tree is worth a thousand humanoids in the bush or some
enzyme could be replicated.

If all else failed but we gained communication I say this; We point the ce
towards the romulan neutral zone, (kudos to the early poster on this lol)
and tell it to come back when hungry. We will by then have found another
source. This could be such a win/win situation for starfleet.

Before any pacifists attack me think about this; the romulans have made
their intent clear on the our future... total dominance or destruction.
whereas the ce may be blindly innocent. Im a glass half full kinda guy. Is
there a flaw in my logic?

Ok I am all over the board on this, all I did was try to throw out all the
variables on how to deal with this ce. One thing I remember from 20 years
ago for sure is I always hated lore and his giant snowflake. A couple years
later back then I remember seeing previews for this ep. And I almost didnt
want to watch it but I did anyway because was hooked at the time. Then and
now I am so glad I did because this was a good one I would give it 3 stars
plus not just for entertainment, but for even star trek, it evokes
something more out of us than most episodes... what would we have done in
picards shoes?

I think the amount of posts and responses on this episode should serve as a
testament of maybe not how good it is... but how much it makes us think
about who and what we are.

Last post (sorry there is many) but I will say what I would have done in
picards place. I would have destroyed the ce as soon as riker told me this
might be our only chance to stop it.

Like william b said there are too many unknowns and this might be our only
chance....As much as I have said before about respect for life outside our
sphere, and the fact we are the travelers, there is just too many things we
do not know about this entity, mainly its capability to out run my ship and
continue to what it has already done.

For that I would defer to my #1 and end it. Not of malice or revenge. But
only because thats the only way we can be sure to protect and preserve
ourselves. Would any species that we know of do different?

The appropriate Picard quote for this episode would be from Where Silence
has Lease: "I can not allow you to do this!"

Usually Picard has a firm stance that the safety of the ship and the crew
are paramount, but this episode seems like he disregards that. Just look
at Galaxy's Child - he does use the phasers when the alien threatens the
ship at first contact.

The alien in this one was feeding on people, so Picard should have taken
the same defensive stance he did in those episodes.

Either way this is a pretty depressing episode. Sad ending for the CE and
for humans too.

Not sure why there's much controversy here. Picard's right. Of course
he's right; it's easy to be right when the universe's author is rooting for
you. Picard's position is eminently reasonable; he's going to try to
communicate but has the weapons ready just in case. And then everything
worked swimmingly. He didn't meet up with the entity when it was in the
middle of eating a planet, and thus didn't have to kill it and then wonder
what might have been. He didn't have to have some response to a
communication, but nothing translatable, and thus have to decide how long
to keep trying. He didn't get a response from the Entity in which it
responded politely and kindly, but mentioned that it really likes eating
tasty humanoids. But it'll be nice and restrict itself to only pre-warp
civilizations, which according to the Prime Directive means that's just
peachy. Then maybe Picard would have a tough decision. Then maybe he
could be questioned.

As an aside though, even though Picard's decision here was eminently
reasonable, his attitude wasn't. Questioning Riker's motives was uncalled
for. If I was Riker, I think my respect for the captain would have gone
down quite a bit, and I would definitely have to restrain myself to tell
Picard off there. I didn't catch the look Stewart had that Jammer
mentioned; but maybe it was there. In that case, perhaps Picard did
realize he was not correct in his accusation there. But anyway, he also
seemed way too excited to talk to the entity. Yes, it's part of their
mission, but what's the options here? Either the Entity is not intelligent
(in which case it most likely must be destroyed or caged to protect lives)
or it is intelligent at which point a rather unpleasant conversation must
follow to explain its transgressions (after all, it worked with Lore
before; maybe it is just evil?). Picard's overeagerness here,
unfortunately, reminds me too much of the first season.

But anyway, back to the plot. Even though the controversy over who was
right was a bit overblown, the plot was still pretty solid. I disagree
with Jammer and think that we had some good characterization with Dr. Marr.
She doesn't seem like an evil person, and we see her original icy demeanor
chill through the season. And yet, her final betrayal doesn't come out of
nowhere. She advocated for its destruction earlier, and her reasoning
(revenge for a son's death) is at least understandable. What makes it
interesting, I think, is her relationship with Data. Despite her moral
failing at the end, she isn't portrayed as one-dimensional. Her initial
prejudice against Data disappears, and she becomes attached to him. And
yet, it's just another side of her obsession with her son. Her character
seems consistent throughout the episode.

But more importantly, I think, is that it's another good Data episode.
Data is unfailingly polite, nice, and giving to others. It's not
surprising that people, even someone like Marr, would become comfortable
with him. That made the last scene even more poignant. Data offers to
take her to her quarters rather than Worf, an act of decency. Then she
begs him for absolution from her dead son. What would you do in that
situation? Try to make the emotionally unstable lady feel better by
telling her what she wants? Rudely shoot her down? Data continues his
polite, pleasant routine... telling her bluntly the thing that would hurt
her the most. It's just another example of how he isn't quite human.
Western culture tends to value polite lies in that case, but not Data. He
seems unfailingly nice, but he isn't. Honesty isn't nice.

So on the whole, a pretty good episode. A worthy return for the
Crystalline Entity.

The amount of debate over this show demonstrates what a good premise the
writers had, even if it is difficult to reconcile some elements with
previous episodes (e.g., why couldn't Data communicate with the crystalline
entity as Lore did)? There are two aspects upon which I wish to comment:

(1) I agree with Jammer and others that the Dr. Marr storyline is a little
heavy-handed, and that it was contrived for Dr. Marr to flip from rational
to crazy as she enacted her decision to kill the entity. Couldn't her act
be viewed and depicted as rational? What upset me more, however, was Data's
statement that based on his review of Renny's logs, he thinks Renny would
have been saddened by Dr. Marr's action. Oh? Are we to believe that Data,
who has struggled so much in understanding human emotions, would be able to
review someone's records, *extrapolate* from the records to determine their
feelings in a new situation, and state with confidence what their feelings
would be? This is not the Data I know. This was the writer issuing a
verdict and twisting a knife into Dr. Marr... for what purpose? We didn't
need that scene to have our debate over whether the crystalline entity
should have been given a chance to live.

(2) Great literature, theater, and TV can always be interpreted in
different ways, depending on the point in life at which we are processing
the material. Was anyone else struck by the "bad mommy" narrative? I'm
reading Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead." Dr.
Marr is understandably torn up for not being present when her son faced the
crystalline entity and died. She regrets missing out on different
experiences her son was having. Does it follow that a "good" parent would
never have take the opportunity to do science across the galaxy? (In fact,
we don't know *when* Dr. Marr left her son with trusted friends. It could
have happened when we was an older teen - his logs show he was romantically
involved.) I appreciated that the writer made Renny proud of his mother's
work.

Picard knows that a line must be drawn. He's unwilling to cross it until
he knows that "negotiation" is impossible. He also knows that Lore was
able to communicate with the Crystalline Entity. So, it is at least
conceivable that he could come to an agreement with the Crystalline Entity:
eat planets without humanoid life, for example.

Notice that Picard doesn't negotiate with spatial anomalies and the like.
He just destroys them if they're a danger to others (and it's feasible,
etc)

Dr Marr is a crazy, creepy old bat, who's obsessed with her son and comes
across as a weirdo. Like those people who hurt their own kids, to take them
to hospital, so they can get sympathy. The real issue with Picard's
morality, is how can he let wacko grandma loose on his ship.

This episode makes Picard look like a naive fool. Picard wanted to
investigate the possibility of supplying the entity's metabolism with
benign material as opposed to life forms. The problem with this approach is
that when you are investigating it, you are not destroying it. Nobody can
predict the future with absolute certainty. If there is an opportunity to
the destroy the creature now or to investigate, destroying the creature is
appropriate. As Riker put it, "if we take time to try to communicate with
this thing, we may lose our chance to destroy it, and I don't think we can
risk that." I don't think any reasonable person would disagree with Riker.

Do any of you people have children, or are responsible for other people's
lives? I think the Dr. Marr character was well portrayed. I think she
would have been happy to communicate with the CE had it not killed her son,
and thousands of others. If a bear kills a human, even if it's not the
bear's fault, Rangers are compelled by law to shoot the bear, as it has
become a hazard, a threat to human life. Doubtless Starfleet would have
issued standing orders to destroy the CE, after sustaining so many attacks
with no survivors. Picard pointed out the analogy of the CE to a whale
feeding on cuttlefish, and that it is not evil. Perhaps he's right. But
that doesn't matter, if YOU'RE the cuttlefish, or your children are. Living
creatures fight to survive, and will try to remove any threat to their
survival, any way they can.j

The killing-the-bear law, IMO, is a foolish policy. Unless it's rabid, if a
bear mauls or kills a human it's a little bit silly to put it down. Any
bear in the same position, and any bear in general, is a threat to human
life and would act the same way in the same situation. No single bear is
more a threat to human life than other bears are. Killing one with the
reasoning that it's a particular threat is misguided. If the situation
requires immediate actions - fine, kill the bear. But hunting down a
particular bear without entertaining a less destructive option is a
disgraceful lack of respect for life and simply allowing vengeance and
outrage to win out over reason.

The crystalline entity is a little bit different, given how powerful it is,
but I think the same logic can apply. I'm stunned to see people leaping all
over Picard for his decision, even though he *clearly* stated that killing
the entity was an option if a safe state of mutual communication could not
be met. Riker, also, was reasonable in suggesting that taking the chance to
destroy the entity is the best option. Picard initially accused Riker of
being biased, and I think Riker rightly defended himself from the
accusation and, as Jammer pointed out, seemed to convince Picard of the
arrogance of his comment. The only person who was out of line was Dr. Marr,
who was bloodthirsty. The episode (rightfully, I believe) came down against
her. Her actions were vengeful and pre-mature because the crew hadn't yet
exhausted all the options and seemed on the verge of making significant
steps in communicating with the entity. Her actions were also analogous to
why we have codified laws and courts and do not allow frontier justice by
the wronged parties. Her actions were also believable and, IMO, still
sympathetic, but sympathy for outrage should not be the driving factor in
seeking justice.

Re-watching TNG makes me really appreciate the characters (in general) as
logical and deductive scientists, detectives, and diplomats. Each episode's
script is obviously only as good as the guy or gal writing it, but I
continue to enjoy the cool headed approaches to a lot of the situations the
characters face. Very little hysteria. Reasonable courses of action. I
appreciate it more now that I've grown up a bit.

Someone above pointed out that a lot of these posts aren't really talking
about the episode so much as they're now just arguing worldviews. That
makes sense to me. The episodes raises issues and now we're running with
them. But as an hour of drama, I still think the episode is quite solid. I
particularly liked the use of Riker and the love interest. At first, it
seemed cliche and cringeworthy. Even her death seemed like it might go in a
corny, melodramatic direction. It didn't, and it resulted in a good scene
between Riker and Picard about personal bias (with Picard being the one in
the wrong, interestingly). We as viewers needed the first-hand tragedy of
an established character losing someone. If it had been a family member or
a close friend, Riker may have been seduced into bias, but since it was
only a flirtatious, casual interest the episode let him believably keep his
composure without requiring any hand-wringing and without requiring him to
make a herculean effort of detachment in order to win an argument with
Picard.

The amount of debate over this show demonstrates what a good premise the
writers had,

=====

No... it demonstrates that an awful lot of people have faulty thinking. The
fact is that this "creature" goes around killing and wiping out. A shark
does the same. If the shark is on your beach, you kill it. After trying to
communicate with this "creature" and all the while it is destroying... you
have no option. That's how the world operates. Anything else is a
nonsense.

And most of you know what I am going to say next:

This episode is a symptom of Leftism and idealism. In the real world, a
few fanatics might be happy that we are soooo hip and enlightened... but
who speaks for the dead and their relatives?

It's stupid. If you think Picard is right, you have a lot to learn. It's
not hip to risk and allow mass death.

That's not what irritates me the most about this episode, though... it's
how blatant the propaganda is. Look at how the writers wrote this
episode:

Expert on the CE is a bitter, twisted, arrogant, closed minded and (often)
nasty woman who is out for revenge for the death of her son. She is
deliberately portrayed so that any reasonable person will see her in a
negative light. The writers don't even attempt to give her some depth...
she's the baddie. And why? It's so you are pushed into siding with Picard
and Data... (the goodies and mouthpiece for the writers' own opinions).

Instead of people watching this episode and being able to make up their own
minds, it tries to lead you by the hand - or rather - brow beat you into
agreeing with the writers that Picard's deluded idealism is the correct
view. That's the whole purpose of the episode - to force you into agreeing
with his position. They couldn't have made it any more blatant without
casting Jafar, from Aladdin, as the scientist.

"Oh, CE, yes, it is he, but not as you know it. Read my lips and come to
grips with reality. Yes, meet a blast from your past..."

It's really irritating and insulting to have writers who push their own
views on the audience by loading the dice in their favour.

"No... it demonstrates that an awful lot of people have faulty thinking.
The fact is that this "creature" goes around killing and wiping out. A
shark does the same. If the shark is on your beach, you kill it. After
trying to communicate with this "creature" and all the while it is
destroying... you have no option. That's how the world operates. Anything
else is a nonsense. "

Except that they hadn't tried communcation with CE before. Then the lady
blows it up when apparently they were on the verge of being able to do so
with the CE. So the shark comparison doesn't really hold up.

That said I'm not a fan of the closing of this episode being so negative
toward the lady that did it. I'd rather have the ending focused on Riker's
reaction since his girlfriend blew up at the beginning.

Except it had been communicated with in previous episode with Lore. And
communicating with a rampaging death sentence is not hip. It's a threat
and you wipe out a threat of this magnitude - not try to get to know it
while it poses an immediate danger.

I hated the ending to this episode. The whole communication attempt was
based on everybody forgetting the events of "Datalore", where it had been
established that the CE could be communicated with and that it was hostile
towards humanoids. There really was no other option than to kill (why does
TNG always use the euphemism "destroy"?) the CE, and it would have been
honest of the writers to let Picard give the order to do so. But instead
that task was shifted to Marr, who is then presented as mentally deranged
by grief. The script could at least have had Picard acknowledge that she
probably saved other people from being killed by the CE. Or even better:
Worf could have sided with her. But this way, the Enterprise crew gets a
desirable outcome without having to take responsibility for it, while
looking down on the person who was willing to take that responsibility.

This thing isn't some misunderstood child... it's been killing people by
the thousands. You have 2 options:

1. If it is sentient, it is a mass murderer and needs to be killed
2. If it is not sentient (Lore episode disagrees) then it needs to be
culled because it can't be reasoned with.

What exactly are you having an issue here with? You think we should
negotiate with a tiger? Or discuss alternate food supplies with a mass
murderer? Your approach is completely illogical... like do-gooder Picard.

3. It is sentient, mass murderer that they had an opportunity to stop
peacefully

Option 3 does not change option 1 in the slightest. Option 3 is not an
option. Firstly, while trying to reason with a mass murderer you risk
further death, and secondly, a mass murderer needs to be imprisoned or,
better yet, executed. We don't go off playing happy families with a mass
murderer. A mass murderer doesn't deserve any compassion or any second
chances.

Good luck telling the families of those dead that it's all ok now because
we had a little chat with it. That's not justice at all. Even if the
creature changed its ways, the fact is, it is TOO LATE.

As for Q, he was judging us on our actions and if they were merited.
You'll be hard pressed to find a majority of people who believe executing a
mass murderer is unreasonable. Or that using deadly force in self defence
is not justified. You are debating this creature like it stole a few
lemons.

Q was judging to see if we could expand our minds. He doesn't care about
18 crew members lost at first contact with the borg, he probably doesn't
care that the CE killing before making first contact. "If you can't take a
little bloody nose, maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your
bed."

Yeah you can't really say what the writers were thinking unless you're in
their head. We do know that making contact with potentially hostile
species has been an objective of the show since the very first episode.

"As for Q, he was judging us on our actions and if they were merited.
You'll be hard pressed to find a majority of people who believe executing a
mass murderer is unreasonable. Or that using deadly force in self defense
is not justified. You are debating this creature like it stole a few
lemons."

From the perspective of this episode, we (the meat eating public that takes
drugs that were tested on animals) are all mass murders. The CE was just
higher up on the food chain than us. So in that perspective it's a mass
murderer if you and I are for eating a hamburger.

That said... your self defense argument has merit (especially since it has
previously tried to eat the Enterprise). I mean, if suddenly the cows rise
up against the hamburger eaters of the world and start killing us... could
anyone blame them?

Q wasn't part of the episode, but if you look at the way the trial bookends
the series... humanity expanding their horizons is arguably the focal point
of the series. So it's worth considering how he'd feel about it.

The episode is a cop out in a lot of ways because somebody on a star ship
who is part of a mission disobeys orders for revenge and mental
instability. She's lost her marbles at the end. So we never sadly even get
to judge if what she did is morally right.

For what it's worth I think you both have good points though. If we
finished talking to the CE I sort of imagine it explaining that it's not
going to stop eating people because they are delicious. The other
possibility is that it doesn't know people are sentient and decides to let
us feed it manufactured energy. Although even if it agreed to stop... could
you trust it?

Sadly the episode answers none of these questions because she goes off her
meds and blows it up against orders, sparing us any real analysis of the
situation.

I agree with 2-1/2. Dr. Marr always strikes me as loony, annoyingly so,
but the episode still remains provocative. This is sort of a conterpoint
to season 3's "Evolution", where humanity is unwittingly destroying
intelligent beings. Communication in that case allowed for a truce to be
reached. Communication would have also added to the knowledge base of the
CE, and might be useful to defend against any of its race. (Like bugs and
rats, doubt it was the only one.)

I think an interesting twist would be to have the CE's mode of reproduction
to be destroyed with harmonic disruption. Possibly it's life cycle is to
get large enough that it destroys humanoid planets at which point the
humanoids "destroy" it thereby breaking it into uncountable spores ready to
repeat the life cycle. Probably wouldn't work as a sequel, but worth
thinking about.

This episode has some merit. The relationship between Marr and Data is one
of them. However, I could never really like this episode because of how
hypocritical it makes the characters look. When encountering the Borg, it
wasn't long before the crew understood that they had to be stopped by
force. However in this episode, Picard suddenly decides to avoid the use of
deadly force at all costs, even after witnessing first hand the
planet-killing potential of the entity. On the other hand, Picard never saw
the Borg assimilate an entire planet, but nonetheless saw the Borg as an
enemy (this was still before he was assimilated himself). To me, Picard's
treatment of the entity made no sense whatsoever. His attempt to justify
this using a sperm whale analogy doesn't make sense either. While the sperm
whale offers some kind of benefit to nature by keeping certain populations
of organisms in check-it is part of the 'cycle of nature', if you will.
However, the Crystalline entity does not do this. It literally devours
organic nature by the planet-load, putting an end to whatever natural
cycles existed in the first place! Not one of Picard's better moral
philosophies I'm afraid.

"Fair enough, but we're not talking about shellfish being consumed in mass
quantities; we're talking about people's lives and entire M-class worlds
being laid to waste. At some point, a line must be drawn."

THE LINE MUST BE DRAWN HERE! THIS FAR, NO FURTHER!!

Seriously, how am I the first one to think of that joke?

Okay, I'm torn on this one. "Silicon Avatar" has a lot of good going for
it and a lot of bad going against it.

First, the good. The Data-Marr relationship is wonderful. First, Dr. Marr
can only see Data as Lore. But, once she emotionally invests in Data and
is then hit over the head with her dead son's journals and voice, she can
only see Data as Renny. Great stuff. And I have to disagree with the
people in these comments who say that Marr is clearly supposed to be seen
as the villain and nothing else. I think she's a very sympathetic
character, at least once we get to know her. Sure, she starts out as very
unlikeable, but that quickly changes. The scene where she almost bursts
into tears while Data recites in her son's voice proves that. Seriously,
what else are we supposed to be feeling in that scene other than sympathy
for her? Also of note is the scene between Riker and Picard when they
discuss destroying the Entity. What I like so much about it is that the
two characters are clearly holding opposing viewpoints and yet the issue is
not resolved. The scene ends with Riker obviously upset that Picard might,
in fact, not destroy the Entity. And, of course, I have to give credit to
the writers for once more trying to use a Season One idea effectively.

Now the bad. All right, just go ahead and count me in the group that
thinks Picard was dead wrong on this one. Why the hell does this episode
expect us to spend so much time wondering if communication with the
Crystalline Entity is possible? We know it's possible. The characters
themselves know it's possible. Lore communicated with it - TWICE! He
lured it to Omicron Theta with the promise of life to absorb. He then
lured it to the Enterprise with the same promise. Obviously communication
is possible! Also, why does the episode expect us to question whether the
Entity is a sapient life-form or not? It obviously is! It obviously is
capable of communication and therefore obviously knows that humanoid
life-forms are also sapient. It just doesn't give a shit! It's still
content to feed off them!

Picard's analogy to a whale feeding off cuttlefish is particularly bad. If
the Entity was indeed a non-sapient life-form like a whale, then the only
solution would be to kill it. After all, it's not feeding on non-sapient
life like cuttlefish; it's feeding off people. If a whale was killing
people, especially on this scale, would anybody seriously hesitate to kill
it? If the Entity is indeed sapient, which we've already established that
it is, then again the only solution is to kill it because it knows that
it's murdering sapient life-forms but doesn't care. Killing it wouldn't be
murder; it would be nothing more than self-defense - not to mention the
defense of the two inhabited worlds it was heading toward when the
Enterprise located it.

Was Dr. Marr wrong in what she did? Absolutely not. I really could have
done without the whole "I did it for you, Renny" craziness, but she was
absolutely right to kill the Entity. This isn't a case of
live-and-let-live. She just saved the lives of countless people on those
two planets. But you say, "Come on now Luke, Picard and company would have
communicated with it and convinced it not to kill anymore." Okay, I say.
How? What exactly would they have said to the Crystalline Entity to
convince it to stop? It already isn't bothered by murdering people for
it's own needs. So, again, how would have Picard stopped it? SFDebris
said it best once about the Crystalline Entity - this thing is a
Lovecraftian nightmare. It has just as much right to exist as anything
else? Not at the cost of the billions of people it's killing! Sometimes,
sadly, killing is required for self-defense. To quote Picard himself from
"Peak Performance" - "That is not a weakness. That is life."

Also, one minor little nitpick - why weren't we ever given an answer as to
why the Entity spared the group in the cave? Simply saying, "maybe it
mistook Data for Lore" would have sufficed.

So, the good stuff somewhat buoys it up, but it could have been SO much
better if they had 1.) remembered the events of "Datalore" and 2.) not
given us this claptrap of co-existence with a murderous Lovecraftian
monster.

Data: "Your son's most intense memories revolve around a young woman named
Jenina."
Dr. Marr: "A girlfriend? I never knew about that. Of course, the last
person he would tell would be his mother. What was she like?"
Data: "He enjoyed her kindness, her gentleness, her physical attributes..."

I have to admit, I was a little worried that Data - being Data - was going
to keep talking and give the kid's mom waaaaay too much information...

Ballsy move bringing back the crystalline entity, which was one of the
wackier season 1 concepts. Good revelation when they emerge from the cave
though.

Tonally this is a problematic one. The character of Dr Marr is all over the
map, which suggests she was unhinged from the beginning and the Enterprise
was thus aiding and abetting a nutjob from the start. That Riker seems to
buy into this because of his abruptly terminated romantic interlude -
despite his rebuttal of that accusation - adds to the difficulty.

Whether the entity should or should not be destroyed seems largely moot to
me - it was attempting to communicate and was not threatening the
Enterprise so there seemed no reason not to see what could be established.
Given that people seemed to love the communication idea in Darmok it seems
odd to dismiss it here. We come in peace, shoot to kill indeed. 2 stars.

Directed at the people asking how else you could "feed" the CE, remember
that Picard said, "If we can determine what its needs are, we might find
other sources to supply it."

It's not a reach to imagine being able to "feed" the CE with the technology
of the Federation, assuming they could figure out its needs, which was what
Picard hoped to achieve. After all, we're talking about a universe where
matter/anti-matter reactions are harnessed as effortlessly as we burn
gasoline; coming up with enough energy to "feed" something that survives by
consuming organic material -- even by the planetload -- is certainly
plausible.

With that said, you can't morally justify killing it without at least
exploring the options. Certainly not in the moment as portrayed, when it
posed no immediate threat to anyone; the "opportunity" and jeopardy"
portions of "ability, opportunity, and jeopardy" were absent.

The only possible justification would have been what Riker hinted at, i.e.,
we might lose our only chance if we try to communicate. Can the CE outrun
the Enterprise and consume another planet before our heroes caught up to
it? Riker seemed concerned, so perhaps it was possible, but in that moment
where they had the CE engaged light years away from any would-be victims?

No, I don't think the Doctor's actions are morally justifiable here. I'm
not the peacenik type -- I hate "I, Borg" because I feel they should have
exterminated the Borg when they had the chance -- but in this instance I
think we were morally obligated to attempt communication before resorting
to deadly force.

Continued from my last post, I feel that Jammer underrated this episode.
This is a solid Data episode, almost on par with "The Most Toys," and
condemning the ending as "too tidy" rather misses the point, for Data's
blunt honesty was completely in character. He's incapable of comprehending
emotions and fails to see just how injured the Doctor really is, as
evidenced by the evolution of their relationship. That relationship was
grossly inappropriate and downright creepy at times, but easy to envision
when viewed in the context of an emotionless android paired with a grieving
Mother.

Ellen Geer nailed the character of grieving Mother; her evolution when
viewed in that context is spot on. One might ask where Troi was when all
of this was going on, or how a civilian can lock Command Officers out of
the Enterprise's computer, but these are minor nitpicks.

This is not a "Top 10" episode for me ("The Most Toys" was) but it's not a
2.5 star one either. 3.0 seems about right.

I feel at the end of the day they had to try to communicate with it, if for
not other reason then intelligence gathering. If there are more of these
'Entities' out there, what will be the official Federation response? If
other CE's behave as this one did and indiscriminately move from planet to
ship to planet consuming all life, then are they to be regarded as galactic
'pests' and killed on sight? Crystalline RAID? That doesn't sound much like
Star Fleet's mandate to 'seek out new life and new civilizations'.
Presumably some attempt at 'understanding' must go along with 'seeking
out'. And without more of an attempt at communication, or even observation,
they will fail in that noble goal if it's a shoot first policy.

So we have a story based on 2 main threads. The emotional and psychological
journey of Dr. Marr seeking closure, redemption and/or revenge WRT her son.
Which was done quite well, if a wee bit heavy-handed at times (imo).
Accompanied by the, apparently, contentious moral dilemma of 'should they
or shouldn't they' shoot on sight.

Arguments over whether germs, viruses, sperm whales or Crystalline Entities
have a 'right to life' are not really applicable I think. When confronted
with a clear and present threat (such as the Entity about to attack a ship
or planet), Picard's mandate and moral authority would be absolutely clear.
Riker does raise an interesting argument of course. But I think Picard
does maintain Star Fleet's high-minded mandate to pursue all avenues of
understanding alien life, when possible.

So I think from a strategic as well as moral perspective, destroying the
Entity just as they had made 'first contact' in a way was a mistake. It's
entirely possible no meaningful progress would be made in understanding one
another, and it would have moved on towards it's next food source. Picard
would then have had no other choice but to blow it out of the stars.

Now whether hesitating as they did would have led to the creature
'escaping' and consequently the Enterprise effectively 'enabling' it to
annihilate another planet is pure conjecture and subject totally to the
whim of screenwriters and producers, not logic or scientific debates of
photon strength, warp speeds, etc. No question it was a huge risk to take.
But that was the point I suppose - To present an almost un-winnable moral
quandary: Star Fleet's 'highest ideals' vs the pragmatic needs of
self-preservation and defence of Federation citizens.

That the rest of the Galaxy is a safer place for Dr. Marr's actions is
unquestionable, but it doesn't mean that something wasn't lost in the
process, as Data surmised.

"Now the bad. All right, just go ahead and count me in the group that
thinks Picard was dead wrong on this one. Why the hell does this episode
expect us to spend so much time wondering if communication with the
Crystalline Entity is possible? We know it's possible. The characters
themselves know it's possible. Lore communicated with it - TWICE! He lured
it to Omicron Theta with the promise of life to absorb. He then lured it to
the Enterprise with the same promise. Obviously communication is possible!
Also, why does the episode expect us to question whether the Entity is a
sapient life-form or not? It obviously is! It obviously is capable of
communication and therefore obviously knows that humanoid life-forms are
also sapient. It just doesn't give a shit! It's still content to feed off
them!"

I agree that the crystalline entity was sapient, but I find your conclusion
(and those of others) that this leads to the inevitable conclusion that
somehow the CI was "evil" or inherently villainous to be unjustified. The
only evidence we have from DataLore is simply that Lore lured the entity to
the colony hoping it would feed. The entity took advantage of the
opportunity it was afforded, nothing more, nothing less. That it may have
appreciated or realized that the creatures it was consuming were sentient
is unknown, but even if true, does not make Dr. Marr's act of revenge any
more justified.

Assuming the entity knew that it was feeding on sentient creatures, this
hardly means it was irredeemably evil or that somehow it was impossible to
negotiate with it. The Klingon Empire was guilty of equal or worse acts of
murder and terror over the centuries, and yet the Federation eventually
found common ground with them and made peace. The same could be said of the
Founders and many other races the Federation eventually made peace with.

Suggesting that the entity should be exterminated without even attempting
to communicate with it and to find common ground is the same as suggesting
that the Federation should have exterminated the Klingon Empire and wiped
out the Klingon race, regardless of the potential for communication.
Morally and ethically, there is no difference except that the Klingons were
humanoids and the CI was not - which is a kind of chauvinism unworthy of
the Star Trek ethos.

As for Picard's decision, as others mentioned, he never ruled out
destroying the entity. Riker's only point (which was a fair one) was that
they might lose the opportunity to destroy the entity if it escaped and
others could be hurt as a result. But given the evidence we have from
DataLore, this seemed unlikely. We already knew that the Enterprise's
shields were strong enough to protect it against the Entity. They knew
enough about the entity by this point to believe that their phasers and
photon torpedos would be more than capable of destroying it if need be. The
chances of the entity escaping a Galaxy Class starship were probably very
remote. One way or another, they were going to deal with the problem.

Sorry, but I still don't buy it. "The entity took advantage of the
opportunity it was afforded, nothing more, nothing less." What that
ultimately boils down to is the the wanton murder of all the colonists.
Since you agree that the Entity was sapient, I don't see how any other
conclusion is possible - it knows humanoid lifeforms are also sapient and
still feeds on them.

Lore brought it to the Enterprise in "Datalore" and it was willing to do
the same thing. We actually see it consume humanoid life on the planet in
"Silicon Avatar" and it was on its way to do the same to two more planets
when the Enterprise intercepted it. It's a murderer. And, sadly,
sometimes self-defense requires the death of the attacker.

Or, to use your analogy, would you say that if a Klingon had a bat'leth to
your throat, that you wouldn't even consider responding in kind to protect
yourself because "communication is possible" with him?

Captain Picard absurdly wants to roll over and expose his bald belly in an
attempt to appease the entity. Happily, Dr. Marr emits a continuous
graviton pulse to eliminate the threat. Of course, the writers were unable
to create an opponent of Federation ideology, who was in complete control
of her wits, instead Dr. Marr was explained away as suffering from a mental
incapacity that forced her actions. A similar cheap plot device was used in
"The Drumhead" to dismiss the Jean Simmons investigator character. It's a
great weakness of the Trek franchise that Federation ideology is never
challenged by fully cognizant, strong characters, acting in good faith.
The final scene where Data becomes an echo chamber for Picard's dogmatic
Federation propaganda is one of the low points of the entire series.

After seeing this again with such a long distance of time and memory, I
think his is an underrated gem of Trek. I would argue that Jammer's
original review might have been a bit harsh in retrospects to the story's
greater narrative benefits.

When considering the story as a case study in human nature and vengeance,
it is narrative similar to Moby Dick, but when applying it to our modern
issues with similar issues between the problem with Islamic Terrorism and
reprisal effects of Islamophobia, it's a good reflection on the reality of
vengeance.

Like the Crystalline entity, Islamic fundamentalism is not understandable
to us, its effects are visible though so we assume its nature is vicious,
murderous, and evil at its heart. Personally, I can't dispute that and I
doubt many Americans or Europeans who have seen the effects of terrorism in
their own home cities not take that into account.

Yet, the beauty of Star Trek idealism is that perhaps, I mean this not as a
believer in the message but an understanding viewer, we can find a common
language and try to figure a way to communicate and understand each other.

However, people like Dr. Marr are no less sympatheic in their desire for
vengeance. When the series of bombings occurred in Boston a few years ago
and my calls could not reach my sister, I had felt of fear, dread, and
hatred. In the hours before re-establishing contact, I contemplated many of
the same things I think others did and as the news came in, I wanted
vengeance.

As misguided as vengeance is, it is a true trait of our nature and
something no matter how ideal our society becomes we can not avoid.

In this regard, I'd argue this episode deserves 3.5 stars out of 4, not
perfect, but the story had the right human realities.

I think it's easily a 3-star rating. Dr. Marr's character was fantastic
acting. I've watched this so many times and I can't fault Picard for
wanting to communicate with it. Perhaps I need to see Datalore again to
find out how "intelligent" the CE is. Ultimately, based on the
communication, Picard could get rid of it or not. No one was in imminent
danger and he would have to assess if the CE could feed some other way. I
read most of the comments, but no one seemed to mention Riker's face after
Marr destroyed the CE. He was pretty happy. I was sorry that Marr felt she
had to take revenge, ironically an Ahab before Picard's turn later in the
movie. Her career is ended, but would she be imprisoned for her actions?
Probably not since her son died from the entity. Still, the episode was
very good. Some of you are pretty difficult to please.

It doesn't make sense at all. Lore spoke English to the entity and told it
he would identify himself as Data. He was speaking English. So Dr Marr was
probably right to kill it because it did not need graviton pulses to
communicate. On the other hand I may be wrong because no one knew that Lore
spoke English to the entity. Something to think on

This can't be less than 3 stars. The fact that it engendered such
passionate debate in the comments here is a testament to what a
thought-provoking episode this was. It's a great example of philosophical
Sci-Fi. And that actress is impressive - I really felt like she had lost
her son, the emotion in her voice was perfect, and that last scene was just
so depressing and tragic.

I want to echo what was already pointed out - Picard was never going to
allow the CE to roam freely if an alternative couldn't be found, he was
clearly going to destroy it immediately in such a case.

Star Fleet's mission is to seek out new life and establish contact, not
exterminate every potentially dangerous lifeform so colonization can go
forward. The Klingons killed a lot of humans at first, but a way was found
to cohabitate and the Federation was stronger for it.

As for the "prior communication" argument, we have no idea what Lore told
the CE about humanity or what kind of impression it got regarding us with
him as our sole representative. Marr's actions precluded any chance of
clearing that up and, just by the way, made sure humans who encounter
another CE lifeform (unlikely that there's only one) in future won't be
able to communicate with it to perhaps save their lives. She will be
responsible for any future deaths.

Flamingo Bob: "Marr's actions precluded any chance of clearing that up and,
just by the way, made sure humans who encounter another CE lifeform
(unlikely that there's only one) in future won't be able to communicate
with it to perhaps save their lives. She will be responsible for any future
deaths. "

How's that? Wouldn't the potential to communicate with a second CE be just
the same as it was with the first?

"Kirk would have blowed it up real good, the first opportunity he got :-)"

He didn't blow up the Horta. And it killed many humans too.

As for the CE, I am with Picard and agree with his approach. Destroying the
entity without at least attempting to communicate with it and exploring
alternatives (such as offering it a less destructive alternative for
feeding) would have been unworthy of a Starfleet captain, even for Kirk.

If communication was impossible or the entity proved intractable, the
Enterprise would have destroyed it. But Marr denied them even the chance at
a peaceful resolution.

I'm okay with the crystalline entity getting blown up. It killed millions
(billions?) but suddenly it's a beautiful space snowflake and everyone's in
awe of it. Isn't this the thing that influenced Lore into being evil? The
episode was too harsh on the crazy lady for blowing it up before Picard
could call it. Yeah he wanted to "negotiate" with it (yeah, right) but it's
killed enough people that blowing it up is completely justified.

I just discovered this excellent site, so apologies for the late comment.
This episode led to similar debates elsewhere. Count me among those who
think Picard was wrong, but I'd like to raise a couple of other points.
First, I agree with many who have commented that Dr. Marr was badly
scripted . The crazy lady vs the noble captain was too one-sided. In fact,
it would probably have been more effective to leave out her character all
together and let Riker carry the "kill it poaition, where he could have
made arguments about Starfleets duty to defend federation lives, and
explained why he felt that communication was not a viable action. Second,
why is it that Federation colonies apparently have no planetary defenses
whatsoever? Can you imagine a governor of a colony of, say, tens of
thousands of people in an obviously dangerous galaxy being content with the
hope that there just might be a starship in close proximity when something
like the CE comes at them?

Are you labouring under the assumption that this was an unintended plot
device? The truth is, the writers wanted to brow beat you with what they
"know" is right. So stop thinking for yourself. They deiberately created a
crazy woman to be Picard's opponent. It's a classic tactic by the left.
Left wing propaganda infests much of the media and especially Hollywood. It
annoys me A LOT. But, like most, being entertained outweighs any
annoyance, generally.

In my opinion, this episode is just a waste of time because it never gets
to the interesting part. Communication with the entity (as Lore managed) is
never established, instead it is just killed off by a crazy woman. That's
exactly the kind of lazy plot resolution that a Star Trek episode should
never have, EXCEPT if the moral dilemma of the "crazy person" is shown to
us in a convincing way that allows us to sympathize with the view of that
person.

Maybe it's just the actress that failed, or her role was written really
badly; in any case, I never really sympathized with her, and that's why the
episode falls terribly flat. It could have been a decent episode, but with
such an unlikeable character who just turns to irrationality to follow
through with her Captain Ahab's revenge, there's nothing interesting that
comes out of it.

I don't see why you rank this episode so highly, I'd give it 2 stars at
best.
The morality of the show is very obvious: You should at least try to
communicate before killing an unknown, INTELLIGENT life form. I just feel
that this message doesn't contribute anything to the show because this
moral stance has been established in Star Trek for a really long time. At
best, this moral lesson is interesting to someone who has never seen any
other episode of Star Trek.

As others have touched on, I really don't see the moral dilemma here, at
least not as much as it is played up. Yes you don't want to kill a creature
if you don't have to, but this thing has destroyed at least a dozen planets
along with all but a few of the inhabitants. So why, when faced with this
deadly threat that is even incredibly hard to track and find that doesn't
give warning of its appearances, is the Enterprise the only starship
apparently looking for the thing? My main beef though is that through the
rest of the series, the crew, and Starfleet in general apparently, are so
much more concerned with dealing with Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians etc
when there is effectively a planet killer roaming Federation space! There
should have been fleets of ships looking to destroy this thing and not just
Starfleet as I doubt the Entity would restrict itself to Federation/human
planets. This is a threat to the galaxy not unlike the Borg, and we know
how hard Picard would fight to beat them. Why is the Entity not one of
Starfleet's most wanted?

Also, communicating with the Entity is apparently very difficult here. But
didn't Lore, who is mentioned several times in this episode, communicate
with it? And not in any super special, just invented it, method. He spoke
to it in a normal voice over the regular comm system. Picard could have
tried that, or even tried to have Data pretend to be Lore to tell it to get
lost. At least that would have prevented Marr's sonic attack on it.

And what kind of scientist is Marr when she can't even hold a tricorder the
right way up? When she was talking to Data in the caves, it was upside down
in the shots of her towards to the end of the conversation. All she should
have got scans of were herself. Not even Data, the science guy, noticed!

I've always had a problem with this episode, to me it sums up, what Gul
Dukat calls, "holier-than-thou Federation fair-play dogma". This seems to
be an episode that demonstrates where the science and defence sides of
Starfleet clash, on the one hand they're there to seek out new life and
understand it, on the other hand that new life has slaughtered thousands or
even millions and will continue to unless opposed.

Now it's all well and good sitting ina room having a good old debate over
morality and "Do we have the right to..." like a bunch of college students
trying to get into a pseudo-intellectual argument but this isn't the time
or place, lives are at stake and Starfleet is the only defence against
those threats.

Imagine if a terrorist attacks your city and your police hestitate and sit
there having a little chat over whether they have the right to kill another
person or not whilst that terrorist kills more innocent people.

Now as Picard tries to mention "It is not evil, it is feeding" but imagine
if a bunch of sharks or crocidiles moved into a local swimming pool that
kids go to, or a hoard of bears or wolves invaded a local town, mauling
people as they walk down the street or invading homes because they're
"feeding" would we sit idly by and go "Well what makes me better? What
gives me the right to survive whilst they starve?" and reflect on morality
as they chew off your leg or would you defend yourself from what is by
definition an aggressor, whether or not their intention is simply to feed
or whether its malice? I would hope most people would defend themselves
unless they had little value for their own lives and I'm a Vegetarian and
animal lover and even I would defend myself with a weapon if a wild animal
was attacking.

So I find the holier-than-thou attitudes of some of the senior staff like
Picard and Troi quite annoying considering they never faced the crystalline
entity, Picard wasn't down on the planet, he didn't see a woman he had
feelings for get vaporised infront of his eyes, he never saw the or knew
the victims of this entity, so it gave him a nice, comfortable, self
assured attitude that he's morally correct in his actions whilst making a
rather conviniently dispassionate decision simply because "It never hurt me
so I'm fine with it" and then gets angry toward someone who suffered the
loss of her own son toward it. We see Picards attitude toward the Borg
later, imagine if Doctor Marr came to Picard after Wolf 359 and said to
Picard "What right do you have over the Borg? What gives you the right to
kill them? Why don't you let them assimilate you? They're only feeding. Lay
down your arms and let them carry on." do you think he'd agree? Like hell
he would.

The Federations morality conveniently changes to suit the "view of the day"
it seems.

Joey, perhaps 24th century morality requires greater care and consideration
before choosing death for any sentient being. I am reminded of the episode
of TOS "Arena" where Kirk is certain the Gorn attacked unprovoked whereas
from their point of view the Humans were invaders. Picard's instincts in
this are very much in line with Spock's through most of TOS (See Galileo 7
for another good example).

I note again that Picard was not suggesting letting the Entity go on its
merry way; destroying it was always an option on the table. It was simply
not the first option, or one Picard would choose lightly. For all he knew
the entity was unique, the last of its kind.

And as for your last point:

"We see Picards attitude toward the Borg later, imagine if Doctor Marr came
to Picard after Wolf 359 and said to Picard "What right do you have over
the Borg? What gives you the right to kill them? Why don't you let them
assimilate you? They're only feeding. Lay down your arms and let them carry
on." do you think he'd agree? Like hell he would."

Well no he wouldn't volunteer to be assimilated, but he would hesitate to
kill the entire Borg race if given the chance, and indeed chose not to (see
I Borg, an episode that addressed this very topic.)

Jason, I understand they wanted to learn from it and that he may be the
last of his kind, but if they did make contact and the doctor hadn't have
killed it, would they just forget all the deaths it caused? Would the slate
be wiped clean after contact? How can you accuse or extradite or hold trial
on a giant space faring snowflake?

If it could communicate and said "Woops, my bad" or "Woops, sorry about
that" would that be enough to satisfy all those who died and all those who
lost loved ones to it? I doubt it. What if they contacted it and somehow
managed to understand it, maybe even telepathically and they discovered it
was perfectly sentient, knew exactly what it was doing and gladly killed
people for its own purposes, what then?

Granted it would be great to understand and study the the Crystalline
Entity, but what if it decided to carry on "feeding" well into Federation
space during this "study"? Would we let them munch away at innocent people
whilst we hastily jot down some information on the way it behaves or do we
destroy it to stop it going further?

My point is regardless of if contact is made it needed to be stopped
otherwise it'd be a worse killer than the Borg in time, so whether it was
that day or within a month or two, eventually it'd have to stop or be
stopped, especially if it entered Klingon or Romulan space, they'd be far
less scientific and friendly.

I've never fully understood the debate about this episode. It always seemed
to me like Picard's attitude was completely reasonable and basically can be
described by three possibilities:

A) the entity cannot be communicated with/the attempts to communicate fail,
in which case the Enterprise should immediately destroy it because of the
immense destruction and loss of life it has caused and will continue to
cause

B) the entity can be communicated with and the Enterprise learns that it is
cognizant of its actions (and the significance of the loss of life it has
caused) and/or that it cannot continue to exist without continuing to cause
similar destruction, in which case the Enterprise should immediately
destroy it

C) the entity can be communicated with and the Enterprise can figure out a
way to get it to stop its destructive rampage and provide some
morally-neutral way for it to continue to live, in which case it should not
be destroyed. This option assumes that the entity was unaware of the harm
it was causing (or, if it was aware, saw no other option). In this case, it
is not morally culpable for surviving the only way it knows how to
survive.

The mother is at fault, because she destroyed the entity before option C)
could be ruled out (and at a time when nobody was in immediate danger),
thus potentially destroying an entity that was not necessarily morally
culpable and did not necessarily need to be destroyed. Maybe it did - but
that hadn't determined that yet and nobody was in immediate danger.

Some of the comments here are portraying the episode as naive/preaching
Picard defying common sense to allow the entity to continue killing people,
but I think the episode handles that issue quite reasonably. To an extent,
maybe there's some dialogue contradicting what I'm writing (it's been years
since I've seen the episode) and I'm just filling in some blanks on my own,
I don't know really.

Or maybe the episode should have been ABOUT whether an entity like this
should be allowed to live, rather than placing the story of the grieving
mother on that framework, as that foundation seems to be the main issue for
a lot of people.

Personally, I found nothing in this episode objectionable. 3.5 stars for
me.

Excellent comment. I think the one thing you're missing which keeps being
brought up is that the CE did already kill countless others (malevolently
or not), and so there's bound to be people who think justice for those
lives would be be served by destroying the CE on the spot.

I agree with Picard, though. If the Federation could befriend itself with
the CE the same way Lore did, think of what a valuable ally the Federation
would have. It could've eaten that little universe in DS9's "Playing God",
or while on the subject of DS9, wouldn't it have been great to let the CE
go feast on some Cardassian or Dominion worlds? I think the hawks on this
board are too short-sighted.

Chrome I think "justice" is not very pertinent here. We're talking about a
gigantic spacefaring crystal. Are they going to execute it after a fair
trial? (Does the UFP even have the death penalty?)) imprison it? Would UFP
even have jurisdiction over it?

No - this has nothing to do with justice, any more than a modern day
decision about what to do with a killer bear would. The "moral" culpability
of the entity is equally impertinent - its only relevence would be in
determining if the CE was truly malevolent or merely ignorant, which would
impact whether or not it could be reasoned with and convinced to desist
from further killing.

Baron's post was correct. Picard's sole point was that you don't destroy
life unless it's necessary, and certainly not for revenge. Entirely
reasonable and justified.

Sorry if this wasn't clear, but I was referring to justice in terms of
equity, not procedural justice with a magistrate. And to that degree, I
think "kill on sight" is at least an understandable position, if not a
hard-nosed one.

People may frown on the idea of an "eye for an eye", but when gets down to
it, many punishments, especially capital punishment, are just that.

That said, I want to reiterate that I don't think kill on sight is
warranted here, it's just something to consider. Even Riker assumed search
and destroy was the Enterprise's mission before Picard tried to temper
that.

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